“You need to go. Solve the case. Give those families a gift only you can bestow.” He kissed my lips with such delicacy; it felt like a passing feather. His hand grazed over my shoulder, making it tingle. “I’ll always be watching over you.” He winced.
His words disappeared like a whisper caught by the wind. Before I could say anything else, I was back in my hotel room.
The next day was a blur. Sara drilled me for an hour on where I was during the time I was in the Underworld. Telling her I was hanging out with Hades didn’t seem to satisfy her. I remembered shoving clothes into my suitcase and saying final farewells to Keith and Guy because Sara insisted. The next thing I knew, I was sitting on the plane. I had no recollection of the cab ride, going through security, claiming my boarding pass, none of it. My time with Hades engraved itself into my brain. Him. The Underworld. I’d never forget any of it.
“Stephanie,” Sara beckoned.
I snapped to attention, sucking air through my nostrils. She’d walked me up to my apartment after our cab ride from the airport, but I’d been standing in the middle of my living room, purse still resting on my shoulder. I trailed a hand over my arm, the bullet graze wound no longer there.
“What the ever-loving hell is wrong with you? Are you on drugs?” She glared at me.
“What? No. I’d never do that.” I tossed my purse on the nearest surface.
She crossed her arms. “Don’t pretend like you haven’t been an absolute zombie since we left Greece. What aren’t you telling me?” She dropped her hands, balling them into fists. “Did Hades hurt you?”
“No. No, I just—I’m going to miss him.” The words stung to say out loud.
She frowned. In two quick strides, she crossed the room and wrapped her arms around me in one of her trademark hugs. It was enough to make me melt, and I rested my head on her shoulder with a disgruntled sigh.
“He didn’t say anything about meeting up with you again?”
“His job. He can’t.” I slipped away, sniffling and rubbing the back of my hand over my nose.
“I thought he worked from home mostly?”
It killed me inside I couldn’t explain any of it to her.
“It’s complicated, and I don’t want to get into it. Please. Thanks for walking me upstairs. I think I’m going to get some rest.”
She narrowed her eyes, studying me. The human lie detector at work. “Alright. I’ll see you at work tomorrow. I’ll make sure to get extra shots of espresso in our coffees. We’re gonna need it.” She chuckled and slipped out the door.
I spent the next ten minutes standing in the middle of my living room, unable to function like a normal human being. All things Hades aside, there was still the matter of Earnest Fueller. The reason, “it came to me in a dream,” wasn’t going to cut it. I’d have no choice but to get Sara involved and beg her to say the tip came from an anonymous call. She was a sworn-in officer. Her word meant gold compared to mine. Being able to look Mrs. Conroy in the face, and tell her with absolute certainty who killed her husband would hopefully ease the pain I felt. After popping a couple of Tums in my mouth, I readied myself for a restless night’s sleep.
“Can you tell me what we’re doing roaming tree after tree in Lincoln Park, please?” Sara asked, rubbing her arms over her leather jacket.
I squinted behind my glasses as I turned several times. “Which way is East again? Never.” I turned. “Eat.”
“Soggy Waffles? You still use that third-grade trick to figure out your directions?” Sara asked with a raised brow.
“It’s as solid of a method as any.” I frowned, facing what I thought was East, but seeing no trace of a willow tree.
She grabbed my shoulders. “Or, you can use the sun.” She turned me to the right, and there in the corner beckoning me like a rainbow sprinkle cupcake was the tree.
I ran over and dropped to the ground, not caring about grass stains on my knees.
“Sara, come help me,” I yelled over my shoulder.
The ground was harder than I thought, and I broke a nail the moment I tried to dig.
Sara crouched down. “What are you doing, Steph?”
“This might sound crazy, but—” I adjusted my glasses. “I had a dream that evidence for the case is buried here.”
“A dream?”
I nodded.
She looked around the park, which was conveniently far less crowded than it usually was. “If you knew you were going to dig a hole, why didn’t you bring a shovel, you silly goose?”
“Wouldn’t it look a bit suspicious walking through Lincoln Park with a shovel?”
She shrugged. “If anyone asked, I’d have said we were planting a tree.”
“It annoys me at times how much sense you tend to make at every turn,” I said.
“We’ll improvise. Here.” She handed me a flattened rock.
We both went to work, slamming our rocks in the ground and breaking off bits of hardened dirt little by little. Every few thwacks, Sara would lift her head, making sure no one was watching us. A corner of a bag sprung out. The once clear plastic had turned cloudy from the years spent underground. I reached forward, and Sara slapped my hand. She dug into her pocket and handed me a rubber glove.
“Do you always have rubber gloves on you?” I asked, slipping it on with a snap.
“Of course I do.”
I held the bag up, and it unrolled. Inside was a stained hammer. “That son-of-a-bitch lied,” I whispered.
Sara leaned around the bag, staring at me. “Who lied?”
“Uh.” Quickly. Think faster. “The guy in my dream. Funny, huh?” I forced a chuckle. Earnest lied even after Hades upped his torture sentence. Being one of the world’s most putrid worms was ingrained into his very soul.
She narrowed her eyes but then cocked her head to the side, examining the bag. She removed another glove, slipped it on, and yanked the bag out of my hand. “This is one of our evidence bags. How did he get it out of the locker?”
“Inside job?” I tried to sound as cavalier as possible.
She handed it back to me, glaring at the ground. “It had to be. Now I need to figure out who.”
“That was years ago. They might not even work there anymore. If they were smart, they would’ve quit after the trial.” I rolled the bag back up and filled the hole.
She dusted off her hands. “If they were smart, they wouldn’t have ever knowingly assisted a serial killer. Which leads me to believe they still work for us.”
I bit my lip. “Sara, I know you’ve done a ton of favors for me lately, but I need to ask for one more.”
Sara gently took the bag from my hands. “I received an anonymous tip on where to find evidence proving Fueller’s guilt.”
There were times I questioned whether I deserved such a profound friendship. Sisterhood.
“I know it’s lying, but—” My brow creased.
She shook her head and interrupted me with, “Come on, let’s get it back to the station before someone sees us.”
When Sara announced the anonymous call to the department, most of the troopers hadn’t believed her. Until they took a look at the evidence bag and realized it was an older version they no longer used. They questioned several times why someone was only coming forward now with the information. Slick Sara shrugged and told them fear could make people do all sorts of things. A trial was set for a month later to close the case for good.